The US is developing a website to enable UK citizens and people elsewhere to see online content which has been banned by their governments.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted that nobody will get a “free pass” from his new restrictions.
However, the “freedom.gov” portal will allow users to bypass bans on “hate speech” which have been put in place abroad.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
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Officials had discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user appear to be in the US.
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According to Reuters, people’s activity on the site will not be tracked.
GB News reports: The project was expected to be unveiled at last week’s Munich Security Conference by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah B Rogers, who has long raised concerns over free speech in Britain, but was delayed.
Ms Rogers had told GB News just weeks ago that “nothing is off the table” to open up “authoritarian, closed societies” which censor the internet.
Amid a row between Labour and Elon Musk’s X platform, she said that “given the pro-censorship inclinations of the British state in recent memory, I can’t say that we’ll be shocked” if the Government banned it.
News of the freedom portal emerged practically minutes before Sir Keir Starmer threatened social media firms with fines and bans.
The PM said the threats were a way to force them to remove non-consensual intimate images and protect women and girls.
“We are going further, putting companies on notice so that any non-consensual image is taken down in under 48 hours,” Sir Keir said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Ms Rogers mocked Labour’s promise to “ensure women and girls are safe online” by pointing out how “in the real world” one of the party’s council leaders called grooming gang victims “white trash”.
The website could spark a row between Washington and Europe over the US appearing to encourage citizens to break their local laws.
US lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna has in the past threatened to sanction both the Prime Minister and the UK itself if Labour banned X.
It would also place Britain in the same tier as countries like China, Iran and Russia.
Before Donald Trump’s second term, the US helped fund commercial VPNs to promote democracy globally and help users access free information.
